Insights: boult.bites Biotech – Winter 2014

The end of 2013 saw a flurry of activity in the SPC world as the CJEU handed down its judgements in cases C-484/12 (Georgetown University v Octrooicentrum Nederland), C-443/12(Actavis Group v Sanofi) and C-493/12 (Eli Lilly v HGS). These decisions have been eagerly awaited, because the referrals to the court addressed two key issues: (I) can a Patentee obtain more than one SPC per patent and (II) what is a “product protected by a basic patent in force” under Article 3(a) of Regulation No. 469/2009 (the SPC Regulation).